AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/21/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary
(Credit: AEW)
Here’s where we landed with Dynamite from Albany this week. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite Grand Slam - 9/21/2022
Chris Jericho def. Claudio Castagnoli to win the ROH World Championship: ★★★★
The Acclaimed def. Swerve In Our Glory to win the AEW Tag Team Championship: ★★★
PAC def. Orange Cassidy to retain the AEW All-Atlantic Championship: ★★
Toni Storm def. Athena, Serena Deeb and Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. to retain the AEW Womens Championship: ★★
Jon Moxley def. Bryan Danielson to win the AEW World Championship: ★★★★
(Credit: AEW)
Show Highlight—
Infinite scissoring! The Acclaimed won the tag team belts in what felt like a genuinely huge moment. Sure, the match was better at All Out, but at Grand Slam, the crowd wanted it more, if that was even fathomable. AEW pulled the trigger at the right time and didn’t bleed this out until Full Gear and it was the right call to do it at Grand Slam.
Wardlow has talked about wanting to make wrestling cool again, and while he can certainly be one of the guys that gets AEW there, Jesus, The Acclaimed really can. We say this all the time on the Podcast, but if was a teenage kid, I’d dying to have that “Scissor Me, Daddy Ass!” t-shirt. Caster’s rap was amazing last night, calling them Swerve In Our Gloryhole, and then comparing and contrasting them to a 20oz to 2 liter of pop—fucking great shit. And Bowens is the first openly gay AEW champion, an aspirational hero to kids who need to see that. The biggest and best moments in wrestling don’t need to have the greatest in-ring artistry to propel it to legendary status, and this felt huge in the moment.
What Worked—
Ocho! Jericho deserves some props. He pulled off the match of the night—again—and people didn’t see that happening on such a loaded card. It’s become something of a running chorus for our Podcast, but anytime Jericho’s schtick starts to wear thin he brings it in the ring and at Grand Slam he was amazing. Interesting choice to have Jericho be the ROH champ, does that mean a ROH TV or streaming deal can be more evident, who knows, but good on The Wizard last night. Claudio has been nothing short of spectacular since he came to AEW and he’ll lose zero momentum if paired with say, more ROH-y guys like Rush or Tony Nese in the weeks to come.
FTR and Gunn Club. That’s a genius pair, really. The Ass Boys are the anthesis of FTR. And while we loooove FTR on this website and Podcast, the degree in which they take themselves so piously will create great friction with two guys who can’t be taken seriously. Dax and Cash will make Ass Men out of them.
Britt’s a pro’s pro. She got her nose bludgeoned off her face and she leaned into it. Britt really ought to be the women’s division champion, because for as long as she was having the Reigns-like reign, the complaints about the direction of the women’s division or its visibility were not en masse compared to what they are now. She’s been doing jobs and doing her best to elevate talent in her losses.
Triple crown Mox. I know people really wanted to see Danielson get the belt but if it’s truly just to get to MJF, I’m fine with them saving it for another time and building towards that in the future. Danielson is reliable and good for a longform build and doesn’t need the belt like MJF does. This is a nice trophy for Mox for all his sacrifices and being the professional when others around him could not.
What Didn’t Work—
Grow the fuck up. Don’t bring a sign or belt to a show. Don’t ruin the best camera angle with your toys. You’re not special. The hurt that is hurting your insides is ruining the show for the rest of us. AEW’s security needs to run interference and yank those down.
Suite seats. How come suites for wrestling shows are always barren? I’d shill out major cash to watch a major show in a suite. Never understood that.
Women’s match layout. That felt like a WWE production. It’s why I hate multi-person matches. Just so many spots of contrivance, sleeping on the mat, being out of the ring, not breaking up a pin or submission attempt when it’s logical so as to not ruin the next spot…it was fine wrestling when they wrestled—because all four of these women are genuinely great performers—but when there is more and more multi-person matches (casino ladder, casino battle royals, three way trios matches, four-ways) it does nothing at all to separate AEW as an in-ring alternative from WWE lazy dreck.
Show Cringe—
Never do that again. With no hyperbole, the incessant cuts to MJF was the worst production job AEW has ever done. It pissed all over a very good thing in Moxley and Danielson and was an unnecessary, persistent distraction. There’s an insistence on not making MJF a babyface, and you’d think pushing poor portly Tony Schiavone down might finally get the crowd against him, but no, it was the 9,745,043,821 cuts to him in the suite that finally may have actually done it. How did Tony think that was a good idea? Honestly! When Don Callis did that surprise attack posing as a cameraman, it wasn’t tipped off this much. Your audience isn’t stupid. Jesus Christ, Kevin Dunn, you’re directing this with the subtlety of flick by Opie.
(Credit: AEW)
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